Monday, November 30, 2009

I LOVE Black Friday. I know what some may be thinking, "You are absolutely out of your mind." Not so! I get about half of my Christmas shopping done on Black Friday! This year was especially productive.

I have noticed a trend that some retailers are extending their Black Friday shopping specials into the entire week of Thanksgiving. Whether this is to give the average shopper a more sporting chance of getting a really good deal on something or they are realizing running these crazy specials will help them out of the red before that Friday is the question. I don't really care which, either. I'll take advantage of a good sale any day of the week. ;)

My adventure began at about 7 p.m. on Thanksgiving. My mother in law said, "Hey, they are opening Toys R Us at midnight. Should we go? They have that train table you want to get Ayla." She didn't have to twist my arm too hard to get me to agree. I said, "Sure, let's do it!" We decided it would be a good idea to just stay up all night instead of going to sleep for an hour or two. In hindsight, it wasn't the best decision I've ever made.

We roll up to the Toys R Us at 1:30 a.m. after getting some caffine and I grabbed my train table and free train set, an $80 value. (Score!!) We stood in line for about an hour and a half. This line snaked its way through the entire store. I have to say I was impressed with the entire day. I didn't run into a single rude person. You hear all of these horror stories about people getting in fights and arrested, but I didn't experience that even one time on Friday. Every worker and every shopper I encountered were helpful and pleasant.

The only negative I experienced actually happened in Toys R Us. The hispanic man in line behind me had either never heard of a shower, or refused to partake. He also decided that I didn't need personal space and wanted to stand in mine. He bumped into me full body about 3 times. I finally asked him to back up a couple of feet. He didn't speak any English, but he definitely got the hint.

I don't know how much caffine I consumed that day. When it was all said and done I was up for almost 40 hours. We had lots of fun and got stuff at great prices!

Monday, October 19, 2009

In Somalia, women are being WHIPPED for wearing... wait for it... BRAS. Yes, bras. I don't even know how to begin to understand the reasoning behind this.

Is it because it is a western custom to hold them in place so they don't get in the way while you're doing your daily tasks? Is that why they are being forbidden? The following article states that they look "too firm". Are they being banned because they are considered a sexual perversion if they're not naturally firm and held in place?

You have to remember, in these Muslim cultures women are not worth much more than cows or camels. Taking away a common physical convenience such as a bra is just another way for them to be kept in a lower status. They wear cumbersome and uncomfortable clothing meant to once again, remind them of how submissive position in life.

Follow the link and read the article. It simply makes my blood boil. We value women in this country. We enjoy a kind of freedom that these women will likely never even realize exists.

If someone happens to pop your bra strap today, maybe you should say, "Thank you for reminding me that I love America." If they look at you crazy, direct them to this article.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

It has been a few months since I updated my blog, so I just wanted to catch up on what we've been up to!

Matt graduated PJ training and is now a PJ! He's been jumping a lot. Almost any day of the week you can go out in my back yard and see men falling from the sky into the river. Pretty awesome!

We bought a boat. I'm on a boat! Matt is in love. That is his baby. "She" is still unnamed as of right now, and we're open for suggestions. I think he'd sleep on the boat if I would let him. We've been fishing a lot. We have a little dock that goes out directly behind out house into the Banana River so we can just run out anytime we see something rolling around in the water.

It is also hunting season and Matt's only been able to go out once. Working weekends has messed up his plans and he's hoping to bag something with a lot of points soon. He's got an itchy trigger finger, and the fever is getting to him!

Erica has been busy with kindergarten and gymnastics. She's doing great in both. She's reading pretty well and I'm excited to start buying American Girl books and dolls. For her, of course.

Ayla has decided that the toilet is maybe not her mortal enemy and probably won't swallow her if she sits on it. So potty training has been going much better, also!

We recently got to go out for grown up time with our friends Rian and Carly. We had a sushi double date, and it was fabulous. I hope we get to do something like that again before they move to Montana.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Only one more month until we're back in Florida, God willing! We are so excited, things are really speeding up here at the end of our tenure in New Mexico. Matt's almost finished with water operations in Florida and will be coming back here for a week before his final week of training. I say training tongue in cheek, its more like the culmination of every combat, medical, tactical skill he's learned in the last three years rolled into one week out in the middle of nowhere.

Before he heads out into the field for his final FTX (that's the abrieviation for field training for you non-military speaking individuals) he has to get back here. He's been in Florida for a few weeks jumping... into the water. Apparently, water landings are much less painful than ground landings. When they weren't jumping they were surfing, fishing, canoeing, eating seafood, lounging by the pool, wearing 1970's era suits out on the town (I'll post pics of those when I get them!). Its a nice reward for the long and hard training up to this point.

The girls and I on the other hand have been busy with other things. Some of them not nearly as enjoyable as fishing and surfing. Like packing. We've got a lot of stuff to pack between now and Matt's graduation. *sigh* While in Florida Matt has found a house for us. It has been reserved and is conveniently located between the Atlantic Ocean and the Banana River. Doesn't get much better than that! It will be ready to move in as soon as we pull up. Please let me know when you are going to drop by and we'll have the welcome mats on the front step!

We did have a little fun in the sun recently... :)

We're also the proud parents of a Pre-K graduate! Kindergarten, here we come!

My birthday is REALLY soon and I was surprised by my good friend, Kalyn, with a little party at our Tuesday morning ladies Bible class. Matt's gone and I had honestly forgotten until yesterday that it was even this week! So we studied some old testament kings and ate birthday cake. That's a good day in my book.

Monday, April 27, 2009

This post has relatively little to do with military stuff, and more to do with just catching up with what we've been up to. I know you've all been waiting with bated breath.

I've been very blessed to have made some great friends out here in New Mexico. The last few months have been busy for me, but in a good way! I haven't worked since we've been out here and that has given me the opportunity to hang out with my new friends and enjoy their company. We've spent many afternoons at the park chasing our little ones around and going to the bounce house on cold or rainy days! I think I would've lost my sanity by now if not for these ladies, I'm going to be sad to say goodbye to them when we all part for our respective new homes in June.

Erica is loving soccer. It surprised me how quickly she picked it up and how good she is. Obviously she has inherited her father's abilities and not her mother's. She also inherited his competitive side. She doesn't really like having to sit out for any length of time. She's one of the smallest kids in the entire league, she almost missed the cut off with her birthday, but she's not afraid of any of those bigger kids!

See what I mean about her not liking having to sit out?

Ok, I lied. There is a little update on Matt. He's in the air operations phase of the apprenticeship course and last week was pretty brutal. He has been beat up from the static line jumps and they encountered some nasty problems during flight. It was over 100 degrees in the plane and add to that full body armor and HALO parachute strapped to you for over 3 hours. Some of the guys were battling motion sickness. A couple of guys were injured during the static line jumps, and there was even a landing in a cactus. Ouch!

This is him waiting to get on the plane for their last night of jumps recently.

Ayla is busy. Very busy. All day long. Potty training is a task that is taking up a lot of her time these days. Apparently, even though she's seen mom and sister sit on the potty many times, fully clothed, the proper way to sit on a potty is totally naked. Except for the binky. That rarely leaves her person.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Not trying to get too deep into politics, but this pretty much sums up the opposite of the current administration.

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves." Abraham Lincoln

Mr. Obama, you are no Abe Lincoln

Today is April 15, 2009, tax day. Many of us have already filed, if you haven't consider this your friendly reminder. *wink* Have you heard of the tea parties that will be happening today? Are you attending one? Let me know all your opinions on the current status of the economy, where the economy could be headed, what you would do to fix it, taxes, government direction, military concerns or questions, whatever floats your boat!

I love a little light political discussion. Have a happy tax day!! (kindof oxymoronic, right?)

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Matt is in his mountain phase of training. Things have slowed a bit for us finally. I can't tell you how much I like having him come home at 4 or 5 instead of 8 every night. That got old fast. Matt has been rock climbing and learning how to lower patients from sides of cliffs. Apparently, its pretty intense lowering a 185 lb soldier from the side of a mountain. Keeping their vitals stabilized and not falling to your own demise probably gets the adrenaline flowing pretty well. Matt took us up to one of the mountains they hiked recently. We had an amazing view of the city and surrounding area, probably a good 60 miles in most directions. That's something you don't really get to see in Florida, flat land doesn't support panoramic views!

Even though things have finally slowed down a bit for us, its not like we've really gotten a break. We have all been sick and weaklings. Two weeks ago I got a sore throat and that lead to a nasty cough. I think there was more to it, but the doctor was in a hurry and didn't get to check me like I think he should've. We've all been there. Erica and Ayla both got my cough and then decided that wasn't enough, that they needed to add pink eye and ear infections to the mix. Good times. Matt caught it and even though men are seriously pitiful when it comes to being sick, this time I genuinely felt bad for him. He's sick and still has to go out climbing mountains, PT, run, and all the other things that they do. There are no sick days in PJU. I thought I was getting a little better, but that was short lived. I now have a full blown sinus infection and we're all coughing worse again. When does it end?!

Erica starts soccer tonight, this is her first practice with her team. Daddy had to make sure she knew what she was doing so he's been practicing with her on their own. She seems to be picking it up fast and I think she'll do fine among the 5, 6, and 7 year olds.

All I can think of is we only have two and a half more months left until Matt graduates. Please say a special prayer that we all make it the end without physically falling apart!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

When Matt is gone out in the field or to a school somewhere it just stinks. You'd think that after almost 3 full years of him being gone all the time I'd be used to it by now. No, it still bugs me and everything kindof comes unravelled when he's away. Case in point, Monday he left for a week. Monday night the dog discovered how to get out of the fence and wander the base. At 8:30 p.m. I have to bundle my girls up in jackets and socks over their pajamas and drive around in the 30 degree weather yelling, "Zee!" for about 20 minutes. I had called the law enforcement desk on base before I left to find out if anyone had turned her in or reported a stray wandering around. While I'm out driving they called me back and told me a neighbor a few streets down was holding her for me. Zee wasn't upset at all, in fact she had made herself right at home. When I knocked on the door the lady said, "Oh, I'll go get her, she's in bed with my daughter." Took the dog home and was able to put my girls in bed a few minutes before 9, but it was still late for them.

Until he comes home my day consists of babysitting Chloe, the 9 week old daughter of a friend, and baby sitting my dog even though she has a fenced in yard because I can't trust her for more than 20 minutes at a time outside. She's escaped everyday since Monday.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Sunday we celebrated 7 years of marriage. It was great day, I surprised Matt by coming home from worship service childless. He was stoked that we had the whole afternoon to ourselves. Giftwise, he gave me a new iPod Nano since my old one is beyond dead, perfume because he knows I LOVE getting perfume, and a card that he wrote a long note in and had me bawling by the end. I loved everything, he's so good to me.

We had a really good lunch at a seafood restaurant called Pappadeaux. The meal was delicious, especially since we haven't had any seafood since we left Florida a year ago! Do you know what it did for this native Florida girl to see alligator (they didn't call it gator, only a minor faux pas) tail, frog legs, and crabfingers on the menu? The only thing that could've made the menu any better is if they'd had sweet tea. Finding sweet tea this side of Texas isn't an easy task. I think Wendy's and Cracker Barrell actually serve it, but that's it. Matt's not a tea drinker so he always rolls his eyes when I ask half heartedly if the establishment we are dining at serves it only to hear those infamous words, "We have unsweetened, but there are sweeteners on the table." You might as well have just offered me rat poison.

Sometimes I still can't believe we're married. I love him so much that my heart hurts from it. I thank God every single day for him. We still seem to be in a honeymoon phase, and I'm not complaining. There are so many things I can't wait to do in the future, and not a single one doesn't involve him. Sorry this is beyond sticky sweet and lovey, but you know... that's just how we are right now. :)

Monday, February 23, 2009

The phonetic alphabet is used by the U.S. military to help distinguish between letters that might get garbled during radio transmissions. That's the gist of what I've found out about its history. If you're trying to get choppers down for a rescue and they can't tell if you said landing zone "M" or "N", that could be a big problem. Landing zone "Mike" is a lot less likely to be mixed up with landing zone "November".

Special operations airmen, Pararescuemen and Combat Controllers, are sometimes simply known as "operators". An operator is sometimes recognized by the first and last letter of their last name. In the phonetic alphabet this would be Whiskey Sierra for Matt. Sgt & Mrs Whiskey Sierra.... tada!

Here's the entire phonetic alphabet if you want to have some fun messing around with your name.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Well, a little late to this whole blogging thing... Seems like I'm always doing things after they're "cool" so I look like a total copy-cat. Call me a bandwagon jumper-onner if you want.

I don't even know if anything I say will be interesting, but at least all those people who are interested will know where we are in our lives at that time.

Yeah... so, a little history. We've been in "training" for what feels like forever, but the prize is nearly in our grasp. Only a couple more months and he'll be the proud owner of a maroon head piece that is highly covetted by many a man. When he graduates we'll be just one month shy of 3 YEARS in this training. I say "we" because it is certainly a family effort and the spouses and children who give 110% support throughout this entire endeavor don't get the credit and recognition they deserve. We've been out in the desert for about a year now and will (hopefully) return to the beach after graduation. If you're interested in seeing what he's been up to all this time, google "superman school" or type "pararescue" into youtube.com to see a sample of what they learn.

I'm ready to go home, but I do have to add that I will miss (that is a big understatement) the church family I have here. They have helped me keep my sanity over the last year, have encouraged me more than they will ever realize, and have been the surrogate grandparents that my babies needed. I feel so blessed to have had them in my life and I could never thank them enough for what they've done for us.